: Re: RETRACTION - RAI treatment

October 3, 2002

Good retraction, , but still not quite right ;-)

The 5 mCi dose you got this morning IS your scan dose.

I'm betting this is the scenario:

When you go back tomorrow (are you sure it's not later?), you will have a

scan to see where uptake is, and they will determine whether to give you a

low " walking dose " (30 mCi) or a higher dose (100-200 mCi). If it's the

former, they'll send you home immediately; if it's the latter, they'll

keep you in for a day or two or three.

They'll do another scan a few days after the ablative dose, to see if

there's any uptake that didn't show up with the 5 mCi dose, reserving that

information for your follow up scan in 6 months or so.

BTW - I hope you're not driving?

Also, I assume you're aware that you'll need to take certain precautions

after your ablative dose, regardless of how high the dose is, or whether or

not you'll be hospitalized.

See links below for explanations.

-

Cautionary letters about driving while hypo from Dr. Ain .....

Nick's personal experiences in the dangers of hypo driving

Post-RAI precautions (links to letters)

Merrill wrote:

> RETRACTION - I was wrong, and you already guessed. My brain is so

> fried right now I literally can't do simple math. Just got the 5

> microcurie dose (my TSH was 85). Here's the scoop (I sure hope I'm

> getting this right). Tomorrow I go in, and they put me in front of a

> guiger counter type machine and count how much of the dose I took

> this morning went to my neck. If it's above a certain level, they

> give me 30 millicuries and send me home, and I'm done, no more RAI.

> If it's below a certain level, they give me 3 millicuries (the scan

> dose) and I go back next week for the scan and inpatient treatment of

> 100-200 millicuries (the amount depending on the scan next week).

> The reason for this is because if there is too much thyroid tissue

> around the nerves controlling the vocal chords, the inpatient

> treatment can cause permanent damage and could damage or destroy my

> ability to speak.

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